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Sep. 11th, 2012 06:04 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
followbutmyselfPlayer name: Kota
Journal: balancedlight
AIM/Plurk: waningsunflower
Email: above @gmail.com
Other characters: Jane, Sveta, Kent, Luigi, Jake
Character name: Iago
Age: 28
Canon: Shakespeare’s Othello
Canon point: As he’s waiting in prison to be tortured
Totem: Desdemona’s handkerchief. It is normally white with red strawberries, but during a fissure, it will simply be red.
Weapons:One snaphaunce pistol with shot and gunpowder. His rapier, as well as a small dagger that can be concealed in his boot.
Abilities/powers: Aside from his training as a soldier, nothing more than a sharp tongue and a smiling demeanor.
Location: The seaport at Cyprus. Away from the area of the beach where people arrive. It is just a loading dock with crates filled with trade items and boxes of clothes, almost like a ship just unloaded, but there's no ship. The waves in the immediate area are high and very choppy, making swimming dangerous. But the farther you go from the dock, the calmer the sea.
Personality: On the outside, Iago is a very friendly and amicable man. He is referred to as “Honest Iago,” as most of the people in his life see him as the epitome of truth. They go to him with their secrets and he takes those secrets willingly. Even Othello, the man he advises and the man who trusts him most of all, sees nothing wrong with him. To them, he is the perfect man, incapable of wrongdoing and the person to go to with problems.
He likes this persona. Very insecure about his own power and place in life, as well as his relationship with his wife, Iago was forced to put on a mask to cover those feelings. A mask that would protect him, keep him from harm, keep him from being discovered. Though he never once regretted what he did, he realized the value of not getting caught.
But his mask is all part of his manipulation. Presumably, before the play takes place, Iago had done nothing wrong. It had all been leading up to this event, this feeling of overwhelming bitterness that drove him to do such horrible things. When he had been passed up for a promotion, it was as if that small slight was the push he needed to show who he truly was.
Above all, Iago is completely and utterly amoral. Without morals. He is not evil in the sense that he does things for the wrong reason or even for selfish reasons. In many ways, he is worse than that. There is no rhyme or reason to his actions, only speculation. He is a sadist, he was bitter, he thought his wife was cheating on him. None of these valid reasons for going to such extremes, suggesting something of a mental imbalance. And they do not explain why he waited so long to show these tendencies. He does what he does for the simple reason that he can, which makes him a very, very dangerous man. With no triggers and no motivation, he is difficult to control. He enjoys seeing others in pain by his own hand and likes the thrill he gets out of controlling them completely.
To add to this dangerous aspect is the amount of intelligence he possesses. Iago studies people. He remembers everything about them and stores those observations away for later use. He knows what buttons to push, what weaknesses to exploit, and what strengths to avoid. He remembers secrets, lies, promises, loves, hates. He knows how to be everyone’s friend and avoid suspicion.
He has been married once and held no qualms with killing her to gain his end. Since she ratted him out, he knew that she had to be eliminated and did it without looking back. This kind of treachery is very common to his personality and he sees no fault in not only betraying his best friend and driving him to suicide, but killing the woman who loved him. Though he did not love her the same in return, it would take more than that to drive one to murder and psychological torture.
That lack of love for her, though, is the manifestation of a deep set hatred of women. A closet misogynist, Iago has always despised women and takes that hatred out on both Desdemona and Emilia throughout his time with them, though most of it was behind the scenes, on his own. They were merely pawns in his game of revenge and sadism. Excluding Othello, they arguably suffered the most under his games. Not only did he convince Othello to kill Desdemona, but he also embarrassed her and ruined her name in the process, all while keeping his own hands publically clean. Some might say that he had a love for Othello, though Iago will deny that completely, saying that the love he felt was not homoerotic, but merely brotherly, spiritual, the kind of love that one man gives to his master and his friend.
On the flip side of that love, however, is a deep set hatred. He holds great bitterness towards Othello, even resorting to crude racial slurs against him. However, with a sick mind as found in Iago, that fine line between love and hate is blurry, and he crosses back and forth between it several times.
Iago is by no means a serious man, despite all the aforementioned traits. He delights in humor. He engages in it and uses it. And he can appreciate it, most of the time. He’s not a jokester, a prankster or a clown, but he likes making people laugh, even though it’s mostly at someone else’s expense. Oftentimes, he uses that humor to convince others that he is not the villain they think he is. He uses it to soothe nerves, calm tempers and sometimes even give a hint to an unspoken third party that he is enjoying his treachery.
History: [This is partly from the Wiki with my own additions and deletions.]
Iago’s history before Othello matters very little to him as a person. Because not much is revealed in the play about said past, we can only assume that he had a very standard life for a soldier in Italy. It is suggested that Othello and Iago were friends before they worked together and that friendship continued on, though the dynamics of it changed completely.
After becoming his trusted advisor and serving with him for many years, Iago claims to have been unfairly passed over for promotion to the rank of Othello's lieutenant in favour of Michael Cassio. Iago plots to make Othello demote Cassio, and thereafter to bring about the downfall of Othello himself. He had an ally, Roderigo, who assisted him in his plans in the mistaken belief that after Othello was gone, Iago would help Roderigo earn the affection of Othello's wife, Desdemona. After Iago engineered a drunken brawl to ensure Cassio’s demotion, using Cassio’s weakness to alcohol against him, he set to work on his second scheme: leading Othello to believe that Desdemona was having an affair with Cassio. No longer is his motivation pure bitterness against Cassio. He had changed his eyes from Cassio to Othello, feeling that the man had betrayed him, so he was simply returning the favor.
This second scheme is more involved than the first. He persuades Cassio to use Desdemona as a go between. As Cassio was stripped from his rank by the embarrassment he caused Othello, Desdemona seems to be the perfect person to try and sway his point. At least, that is what Iago told him. However, this only arouses suspicion that Desdemona is having an affair with Cassio and furthers Iago’s plans
To increase the success of this plan, Iago manipulates his own wife, Emilia, into taking from Desdemona a handkerchief that Othello had given her; he then tells Othello that he had seen it in Cassio's possession. Once Othello flies into a jealous rage, Iago tells him to hide while he (Iago) talks to Cassio. Iago then leads Othello to believe that a bawdy conversation about Cassio's mistress, Bianca, is in fact about Desdemona. Mad with jealousy, Othello orders Iago to kill Cassio, promising to make him lieutenant in return. Roderigo, unfortunately, had given Iago gifts for Desdemona, which Iago had kept himself. Knowing that Roderigo could not live because of that, Iago then engineers a fight between Cassio and Roderigo. Roderigo is killed by Iago’s own hand and Cassio is merely wounded.
Towards the end of his life, Iago’s plan appears to succeed when Othello smothers Desdemona, who is innocent of Iago's charges. When Emilia arrives to check on her mistress, she discovers Othello’s misdeed against Desdemona and begins to reveal Iago. Before she can give him up completely, Iago kills her and she falls silent. He runs out of the room, but is eventually brought back. Even after being threatened with torture and execution, he refuses to speak any more than to confirm what Emilia has already said. He watches Othello kill himself and fling himself upon Desdemona. Iago was then taken and tortured for information, found guilty, and subsequently killed.
1st person sample: What hell is this? Damned cowards cannot bring themselves to even kill a man like me. Unless I only believe I am here. Truly, I have gone mad. Washed upon a shore that is not mine nor one familiar.
Perhaps this is death..in which I have been given this to soothe my own mortal madness?
They spoke of torture. But not of this.
Journal: balancedlight
AIM/Plurk: waningsunflower
Email: above @gmail.com
Other characters: Jane, Sveta, Kent, Luigi, Jake
Character name: Iago
Age: 28
Canon: Shakespeare’s Othello
Canon point: As he’s waiting in prison to be tortured
Totem: Desdemona’s handkerchief. It is normally white with red strawberries, but during a fissure, it will simply be red.
Weapons:One snaphaunce pistol with shot and gunpowder. His rapier, as well as a small dagger that can be concealed in his boot.
Abilities/powers: Aside from his training as a soldier, nothing more than a sharp tongue and a smiling demeanor.
Location: The seaport at Cyprus. Away from the area of the beach where people arrive. It is just a loading dock with crates filled with trade items and boxes of clothes, almost like a ship just unloaded, but there's no ship. The waves in the immediate area are high and very choppy, making swimming dangerous. But the farther you go from the dock, the calmer the sea.
Personality: On the outside, Iago is a very friendly and amicable man. He is referred to as “Honest Iago,” as most of the people in his life see him as the epitome of truth. They go to him with their secrets and he takes those secrets willingly. Even Othello, the man he advises and the man who trusts him most of all, sees nothing wrong with him. To them, he is the perfect man, incapable of wrongdoing and the person to go to with problems.
He likes this persona. Very insecure about his own power and place in life, as well as his relationship with his wife, Iago was forced to put on a mask to cover those feelings. A mask that would protect him, keep him from harm, keep him from being discovered. Though he never once regretted what he did, he realized the value of not getting caught.
But his mask is all part of his manipulation. Presumably, before the play takes place, Iago had done nothing wrong. It had all been leading up to this event, this feeling of overwhelming bitterness that drove him to do such horrible things. When he had been passed up for a promotion, it was as if that small slight was the push he needed to show who he truly was.
Above all, Iago is completely and utterly amoral. Without morals. He is not evil in the sense that he does things for the wrong reason or even for selfish reasons. In many ways, he is worse than that. There is no rhyme or reason to his actions, only speculation. He is a sadist, he was bitter, he thought his wife was cheating on him. None of these valid reasons for going to such extremes, suggesting something of a mental imbalance. And they do not explain why he waited so long to show these tendencies. He does what he does for the simple reason that he can, which makes him a very, very dangerous man. With no triggers and no motivation, he is difficult to control. He enjoys seeing others in pain by his own hand and likes the thrill he gets out of controlling them completely.
To add to this dangerous aspect is the amount of intelligence he possesses. Iago studies people. He remembers everything about them and stores those observations away for later use. He knows what buttons to push, what weaknesses to exploit, and what strengths to avoid. He remembers secrets, lies, promises, loves, hates. He knows how to be everyone’s friend and avoid suspicion.
He has been married once and held no qualms with killing her to gain his end. Since she ratted him out, he knew that she had to be eliminated and did it without looking back. This kind of treachery is very common to his personality and he sees no fault in not only betraying his best friend and driving him to suicide, but killing the woman who loved him. Though he did not love her the same in return, it would take more than that to drive one to murder and psychological torture.
That lack of love for her, though, is the manifestation of a deep set hatred of women. A closet misogynist, Iago has always despised women and takes that hatred out on both Desdemona and Emilia throughout his time with them, though most of it was behind the scenes, on his own. They were merely pawns in his game of revenge and sadism. Excluding Othello, they arguably suffered the most under his games. Not only did he convince Othello to kill Desdemona, but he also embarrassed her and ruined her name in the process, all while keeping his own hands publically clean. Some might say that he had a love for Othello, though Iago will deny that completely, saying that the love he felt was not homoerotic, but merely brotherly, spiritual, the kind of love that one man gives to his master and his friend.
On the flip side of that love, however, is a deep set hatred. He holds great bitterness towards Othello, even resorting to crude racial slurs against him. However, with a sick mind as found in Iago, that fine line between love and hate is blurry, and he crosses back and forth between it several times.
Iago is by no means a serious man, despite all the aforementioned traits. He delights in humor. He engages in it and uses it. And he can appreciate it, most of the time. He’s not a jokester, a prankster or a clown, but he likes making people laugh, even though it’s mostly at someone else’s expense. Oftentimes, he uses that humor to convince others that he is not the villain they think he is. He uses it to soothe nerves, calm tempers and sometimes even give a hint to an unspoken third party that he is enjoying his treachery.
History: [This is partly from the Wiki with my own additions and deletions.]
Iago’s history before Othello matters very little to him as a person. Because not much is revealed in the play about said past, we can only assume that he had a very standard life for a soldier in Italy. It is suggested that Othello and Iago were friends before they worked together and that friendship continued on, though the dynamics of it changed completely.
After becoming his trusted advisor and serving with him for many years, Iago claims to have been unfairly passed over for promotion to the rank of Othello's lieutenant in favour of Michael Cassio. Iago plots to make Othello demote Cassio, and thereafter to bring about the downfall of Othello himself. He had an ally, Roderigo, who assisted him in his plans in the mistaken belief that after Othello was gone, Iago would help Roderigo earn the affection of Othello's wife, Desdemona. After Iago engineered a drunken brawl to ensure Cassio’s demotion, using Cassio’s weakness to alcohol against him, he set to work on his second scheme: leading Othello to believe that Desdemona was having an affair with Cassio. No longer is his motivation pure bitterness against Cassio. He had changed his eyes from Cassio to Othello, feeling that the man had betrayed him, so he was simply returning the favor.
This second scheme is more involved than the first. He persuades Cassio to use Desdemona as a go between. As Cassio was stripped from his rank by the embarrassment he caused Othello, Desdemona seems to be the perfect person to try and sway his point. At least, that is what Iago told him. However, this only arouses suspicion that Desdemona is having an affair with Cassio and furthers Iago’s plans
To increase the success of this plan, Iago manipulates his own wife, Emilia, into taking from Desdemona a handkerchief that Othello had given her; he then tells Othello that he had seen it in Cassio's possession. Once Othello flies into a jealous rage, Iago tells him to hide while he (Iago) talks to Cassio. Iago then leads Othello to believe that a bawdy conversation about Cassio's mistress, Bianca, is in fact about Desdemona. Mad with jealousy, Othello orders Iago to kill Cassio, promising to make him lieutenant in return. Roderigo, unfortunately, had given Iago gifts for Desdemona, which Iago had kept himself. Knowing that Roderigo could not live because of that, Iago then engineers a fight between Cassio and Roderigo. Roderigo is killed by Iago’s own hand and Cassio is merely wounded.
Towards the end of his life, Iago’s plan appears to succeed when Othello smothers Desdemona, who is innocent of Iago's charges. When Emilia arrives to check on her mistress, she discovers Othello’s misdeed against Desdemona and begins to reveal Iago. Before she can give him up completely, Iago kills her and she falls silent. He runs out of the room, but is eventually brought back. Even after being threatened with torture and execution, he refuses to speak any more than to confirm what Emilia has already said. He watches Othello kill himself and fling himself upon Desdemona. Iago was then taken and tortured for information, found guilty, and subsequently killed.
1st person sample: What hell is this? Damned cowards cannot bring themselves to even kill a man like me. Unless I only believe I am here. Truly, I have gone mad. Washed upon a shore that is not mine nor one familiar.
Perhaps this is death..in which I have been given this to soothe my own mortal madness?
They spoke of torture. But not of this.
